Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2010

[Justin Taylor]

There are several different affected areas. The areas along Yonge Street and Queen Street have been identified, but that is really only a very contained area. I don't have the number in square kilometers.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Did restaurants outside Toronto also shut down because of the possibility of mayhem and things being broken?

[Justin Taylor]

Outside Toronto?

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

When I say “outside”, I mean outside the downtown area.

[Justin Taylor]

Yes. Our table on page 6 indicates the percentage of restaurants in the downtown and outside the downtown area, as well as the impact on them.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

So, these are restaurants that were affected.

At this point, I would strongly suggest — although I know that you say it would be a complicated accounting exercise — that you check back with restaurant owners again. It would not be difficult for them to determine what their sales were in May. If you compare that with their sales in June, for a two-week period, it should be possible to identify the impact fairly quickly.

I worked in that area and it's a number that can easily be calculated. All they would have to do is call their accountant and ask him or her what their profits were for such and such a week, and what their sales volume was. That is easy enough to determine. It seems to me these people should be able to provide you with that information even now.

Right from the outset, the dates of the G-20 were known. So, those numbers should already be available so that you can make a claim immediately. I think there will be delays. One day the government will say that restaurant owners are at fault for not producing the figures.

So, restaurant owners in the city should have provided the names of the restaurants, with the appropriate numbers and amounts, asking to be compensated. The other bill would be for damages to their facilities. That would have been much simpler.

It's going to take a lot longer, because they're going to ask you to provide figures. They will say they're willing to pay, but they don't have the figures. So, those are things that should be done quickly.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Vincent. Your six minutes are up.

Go ahead, Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Taylor and Ms. Reynolds, we appreciate your attendance today. We always appreciate your testimony and your efforts to advocate on behalf of your members. Thank you for coming.

I should mention to colleagues that these two individuals have been strong advocates of the restaurant industry in my own community. We have worked together to great success in the past.

You, as an organization, are very aware of the efforts that our government has undertaken to try to compensate people affected by the G-8 and G-20. I know that we've worked together with your organization to get an extension to the application period and time. You are aware of that, and your members, I imagine, would be aware of it, especially with your efforts to make that information available to them.

Are you happy with the extension of the deadline that has now been established? Are you satisfied that the period of time is appropriate?

[Justin Taylor]

Our members were very pleased that the deadline was extended. One of the reasons we were asking for the deadline to be extended was that the guidelines took a significant amount of time to be established. The government did take actions to make sure that restaurants that wanted to apply were provided with adequate time to do so.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Very good.

I want to go to page 5 in your deck of cards here. When talking about the impact, you talk about the average sales being down 55%, but in the press release that you put out with regard to this issue, you also state that 51% of the businesses were actually closed during that period and time. Did the members that were closed just submit a zero to establish the average of the actual sales for that period in time?

[Justin Taylor]

No. Only the businesses that remained open submitted numbers for the decrease in sales. Those that indicated they were closed were captured under the response for being closed during the G-20.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Very good. That's very helpful.

You represent members in the Huntsville area. Did you do any surveys or work in that area as well?

[Justin Taylor]

We did not hear a significant outcry about compensation from our members in Huntsville.

[Joyce Reynolds]

In fact, what we did hear from our members in Huntsville was that it actually had a positive impact on sales in that area. We don't have survey results, but what we tended to hear from our members was that there was a positive impact in that region.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

It would be interesting, if only for our sake, to find out what that positive impact was, because obviously there were immediate impacts that were beneficial to business owners.

As I look through a number of different organizations from the Toronto area, including the chambers of commerce and professors from Ryerson University, I see that a lot of study has been done on the impact of the G-8 and G-20 and the benefits that will come to people who are in the tourism sector, specifically to restaurant owners, hotel owners, and the others who benefit from tourism. They talk about the long-term benefits.

Have you undertaken any efforts to measure the long-term results and benefits of the G-8 and G-20 on your respective members?

[Joyce Reynolds]

I don't think we would even know.... We wouldn't be able to do that at this point.

One of the challenges of this G-20 was that our operators had no idea what to anticipate. They were getting mixed messages in terms of what to anticipate and whether to stay open or closed. Some went into the G-20 with fairly high expectations that it was going to be close to normal, and that there might even be a bump in some cases. I think the overwhelming message we got from our members was that it was far worse than they could possibly have imagined in terms of its impact.

My 92-year-old mother had to go for surgery on the Thursday at a downtown hospital, and I wondered how I was ever going to get her there. I've never had such an easy drive downtown in my life. There were tons of street parking. It was as simple as you could possibly imagine. That was prior to it even starting. The city was empty days before the thing even started. None of our members imagined that would be the case.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I don't know that there's any way to imagine that. I know in communities that have hosted large events, that sometimes is the effect. I know my own community of Grande Prairie hosted the Canada Winter Games, and the same thing happened. Kids were given time off school, so everybody took off to Disneyland. It was an opportunity because everyone was anticipating this huge crush on the city, so they thought they'd get out of town for that period of time. We understand that, and I certainly believe that people all around this table have a great amount of sympathy for those people in your industry because we know the margins are so slim.

On that point, you are aware of a number of things we've done on the tax side to benefit your members. Have you taken a position on the tax cuts that are being brought forward by this government and how their impacts might relate to your members?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

You have about ten seconds to answer a tax question.

[Joyce Reynolds]

I can say we're appreciative that EI premiums are not going to be 21¢ per $100 of payroll for employers. As our president put it, we were expecting a hurricane of seven and it's been reduced to a two, so we're pleased about that.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Warkentin.

Madam Chow, welcome to the committee. You have six minutes.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Thank you.

Joyce, it's good to see you again.

As you know, I represent the downtown area, the area you've described as a ghost town for that week and a half. So 93% of your downtown businesses said they lost a staggering amount of business. Many of them are telling me and telling you they've given up applying for funding compensation because it's slow, it's opaque, there's no guarantee they would qualify, it's expensive, it's bureaucratic. I haven't heard of anyone who has got any compensation yet, or even heard that they would get any compensation both for loss of sales and for broken windows. Am I correct on that? Have you heard that anyone actually got a penny?

[Joyce Reynolds]

We haven't heard.

[Justin Taylor]

No members have reported getting any compensation yet.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Has anyone been promised they would be compensated for their broken windows? The government has been saying it's too bad about broken windows, they should get their insurance company to pay. That is what they were told. Am I correct on that? Is that what your members are telling you too?

[Justin Taylor]

Some members did have adequate insurance to cover that type of damage, but there is no compensation from government for any of those costs.